Nationalism and populist politics: the migrant-citizen conundrum in Assam

ABSTRACT The article explores the far-reaching repercussions of British colonialism in producing hierarchical identities around religion, identity, and ethnicity in the northeastern state of Assam in India. The trajectory of people’s mobility across the border, due to political and economic reasons, has led to contention around legality, demography, and electoral outcomes. The article elucidates how nationalism, populism and the politics of insecurity have been played out whereby perceived collective threats are framed and acted upon. Traversing from past to present and apprehending the lurking dystopia, the article explains how the populist politics of othering residents in the borderland state of Assam has initiated various statist initiatives to differentiate natives from migrants, and citizens from residents. It grapples with the shifting meaning of a ‘native’ that qualifies or disqualifies populations from their citizenship, and examines how populist governance uses a migrant figure to seek legitimacy of its exclusionary citizenship policies and practices. It explores the dialogic functioning of a Hindu nationalist governance at the centre and an ethno-nationalist governance in Assam in a right-wing populist milieu. In the context in which migration is framed as a threat to the people, the article engages with the politics of insecurity, anxiety, and grievance.